Penn State Football: NCAA Eyes July 13 Return Per Report

College football has a tentative return date.

The NCAA Football Oversight Committee has reportedly passed a recommendation that coaches can begin working with their teams in person on July 13. The brief training period would come in conjunction with the traditional start of fall camp at the beginning of August.

The recommendation is yet to be approved by the NCAA Division I Council, which meets on June 17, but approval is expected to come without issue. Safety guidelines have yet to be released as well, although the NCAA has largely indicated over the past several months that programs should adopt local and state health and safety guidelines as it pertains to COVID-19.

According to Yahoo Sports, schools can begin working with their players on July 13, which would include strength workouts and coaches engaging in film study with their players. (It would be a week earlier for teams involved in Week 0, as they’ve been told they can start July 6.) Summer access “may begin 25 calendar days prior to the first permissible preseason practice date.”

Those eight-hour weeks would then shift to 20-hour weeks on July 24, a measure in place to allow players to transition back into playing and practicing shape safely after a fairly long break from structured workouts and practices.

Penn State currently has 75 football players on campus for voluntary workouts that begin this upcoming Monday. State College is currently in the green phases in the state’s reopening plan which limits the number of people allowed in athletic facilities and other capacity related variables.

The voluntary workout period concludes at the end of the month per an earlier NCAA ruling that lifted a suspension of all team-related actives. The current workout period began at the start of June.

In turn the NCAA’s ruling of a July 13 return may not in fact be the same day Penn State also returns to campus. The university has stated it will announce broader plans for the fall semester by June 15.